Temperature and surrounding refractive index insensitive cascaded long period grating chemical sensor

The response to temperature and refractive index (RI) of cascaded long period gratings operating at or near the phase matching turning point was studied. Temperature- and RI-induced changes of the phase of the channelled spectrum and wavelength shift of the long period grating’s resonance band envelope were observed for two conditions; when the length of fibre separating the long period gratings was perturbed and when the whole length of the device was perturbed. It is shown that when the central section of the device is perturbed the phase of the channelled spectrum changes and the envelope remains fixed, while when the entire device is perturbed the phase and central wavelength of the envelope shift at the same rate. Thus measurement of changes in the channelled spectrum with respect to the centre of the resonance band envelope offers a means for developing sensors whose response is compensated for temperature and RI.